can exceed in sorrow for Josiah because he was taken away from the evill to come yet you cannot for your own sinnes by which he was taken away I am brought into so great trouble and miserie saith the tender-hearted King Psa 38. 6. that I go mourning all the day long Hee for my sinnes and not I much rather for mine own Sorrow is certainly most agreeable with a godly heart or the man after Gods own heart could not have spoken thus much lesse in the Person of the Sonne of God not is the Precept and practise thereof meerly legall for those onely that were under the curse of the Law but also Evangelicall for those that are under the Crosse of Christ and the blessings of the Gospel James 4. 8 9. They that are sinners must be afflicted and mourn and weep though they are bound to believe the Remission of sins And they must be sinners here in their own who hope to be Saints hereafter in Gods account Let us then joyn our selves to this sad Quire of mourners the season calls for it Lent was antiently a time of mourning The occasion calls for it our Josiah is slain and wee have yet a twofold lowder call that of our own sinnes and of Gods judgements both which cry aloud for the most bitter kinds of Lamentation If not for our interest in the life of our King yet for our sin in his Death we must heartily lamenr and that we may so do wee must ever hereafter speak of Iosiah in all our Lamentations They spake of Iosiah in their Lamentations to this day Sorrow is very unwilling to lift up either Head or Eye and therefore though we have heard some of the mournings of Iudah yet we have not looked so much about us as to see either the occasion of the mourning or the condition of it The Text directs us immediately unto both First The occasion of this bitter mourning it was the untimely death of Josiah untimely to all but to himselfe They mourned for Iosiah 2. The condition of it in the train of the Mourners All Judah and Jerusalem mourned and Jeremiah lamented and all the singing men c. First the occasion of this bitter mourning the untimely death of Iosiah lamentable in it selfe slain by Egyptians in a full age and ripenesse of years to govern both himselfe and Iudah 2 Kings 22. 1. But more lamentable in its circumstances for hee had newly made a Religious Real not a specious Phantasticall league and covenant with God 2 Chron. 34. 31. A Covenant that bound him to change his heart not his Religion and to keep the cōmandements which God had given not to give a new Commandement in the name of God He had taken away all the abominations of Israel 34. 33. Kept a most solemne Passeover 35. 18. and both with so great a Humiliation and Devotion as might have exempted a most wicked Ahab from a judgement already denounced against him not onely in his own as 1 Kin. 21. 29. but also in his sons daies Yet after all this comes his untimely Death as it is said 2 Chro. 35. 20. After all this when Josiah had prepared the Temple Necho King of Egypt came up c. After all this when Iosiah had prepared the Temple then himselfe was made the Sacrifice So that this one occasion affords in truth many causes of their mourning which are all reducible to these two Heads Their Affection and their Apprehension their Affection for what had befallen Iosiah and their Apprehension for what was like to befall them 1. There Affection for what had befallen Iosiah So the Prophet Ieremy begins his Lamentations How is the City become a widow Amisso Rege optimo qui Regni quasi meritus est popularium quasi Pater saith Tremelius a very good Protestant but in this a far better Christian Ierusalem was a widow having lost her Husband and an Orphan having lost her Father in the death of one Iosiah And so comes both with the Affection of a widow to mourn for her husband and with the affection of a child to mourn for her Father If Rachel mourned so affectionately for her children much more for her Husband Ierem. 31. 15. Do but change the persons and you may see how Ierusalem mourned for Iosiah A voice was heard in Ramah Lamentation and bitter weeping not Rachel weeping for her children but Ierusalem weeping for her Husband refuseth to be comforted for her Husband because hee is not If Ieremy could lament so exceedingly for the slain of the Daughter then how much more for the slaying of the Father of his People Doe but so change his words and you have a short view how Ieremiah lamented for Iosiah as he went along with the mourners Ier. 9. 1. O that my head were waters and mine eyes a fountaine of tears that I might weep day and night for the slain of the Daughters but much more for the slain of the Father of my people Thus the greatest natural and personal affection that could be to their Josiah as a Father as a Husband is the cause of this great Lamentation and yet greater is the affection they shew to themselves For they did indeed in Josiahs death mourn and lament their owne Funeralls their affection to him was capable of some comfort but their affection to themselves was capable of none They knew that nothing but good had befallen Josiah for hee was gathered to his Fathers in peace as Huldah had prophesied 2 Chron. 34. 28. But they knew that nothing but evill could befall themselves for whose sinnes he was so soon gathered to his Fathers So that for their affection to him they could comfort themselves with these two documents First That God will not have his faithfull servants rely upon a temporall reward for their service but calleth them to the contemplation and fruition of Eternitie and yet is no debter in not paying their wages here in this world 2 Cor. 4. 17. Secondly That an untimely and unmercifull Death is sometimes given in favour not in judgement to Righteous and mercifull men even to take them away from the evill to come Isa 57. 1. As it was prophesied of this same Josiah that he should be gathered to his fathers in peace 2 Chron. 34. 28. which was without doubt fulfilled though hee was afterwards slain in Battell which hath the most cruell and the most dreadfull visage of War so that their inference savours of ill Logick but of worse divinity who upon those words Behold how he loved him John 11. 36. Presently replyed v. 37. Could he not have caused that this man should not have died as if that had been the greatest testimonie of his love For because God loved Iosiah he suffered him to die Thus their affection towards Iosiah might receive comfort from these two Documents which most of all distracts and disturbs their apprehension when they reflect upon themselves For both these considerations speak aloud to them
speculatively for the care of his own but also practically for the cure of other mens soules yet is forced to confesse that he cannot live in so great Patience and charitie as his King could Die. For which cause hee conceives himselfe unworthy to be enquired after either for Approbation or for Reprehension And having undertaken to be Sions Pen-man though with Pans Reed in stead of Apollo's Quill hee is resolved to be known by no other Character then this of a true Citizen of Sion that he is yours in all brotherly love whether you be his so or no Yet if you be any other so he beseeches you not to separate those which God hath joyned together Love the Brotherhood Feare God Honour the King Hee desires that all three may be inseparably 1 Pet. 2. 17. joyned in himselfe and remaines Your servant in Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Tears of Sion upon the Death of JOSIAH c. 2 CHRON. 35. 24 25. 24. And all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah 25. And Jeremiah lamented for Josiah And all the singing men and the singing women spake of Josiah in their Lamentations to this day and made them an Ordubabce in Israel and behold they are written in the Lamentations T IS want of sorrow that is the greatest cause of sorrow Want of godly sorrow to compunction that is the cause of wofull sorrow to confusion Dives being in Torments hath not his memento given him for nothing Luke 16. 25. Son remember that thou in thy life time c. for Eternitie and Time are as different in their condition as in their continuance Heavinesse must endure for the night of this life that joy may come in the morning of Eternitie Psal 30. 5. such a Morning as never drawes to an Evening and cannot bee overshadowed with night Joy and gladnesse may be a vanitie at all times but 't is also an impietie at such a time when God calls to weeping and to mourning And in that day did the Lord God of Hosts call to weeping and to mourning Isa 22. v. 12. And behold joy and gladnesse v. 13. but what followes next Surely this iniquitie shall not be purged from you till ye die saith the Lord God of Hosts At such a time Joy is not onely a great Vanitie but also a great iniquitie a very great iniquitie For this iniquitie shall not be purged from you till ye die saith the Lord God of Hosts 'T is not an Host of men may forbid it when the Lord of Hosts calls for it Judah and Jerusalem would not be guilty of this iniquitie The Prophet Jeremie durst not be guilty of it For when God called unto mourning for the Untimely Death so untimely that time it selfe could wish to be untimed in that part of its succession the untimely death of their King Josiah their Religious their Devout their unparalelled King Josiah the Text saith All Judah and Jerusalem mourned and Jeremiah mourned and the Singing men and singing women mourned and left a Pattern of mourning to all Ages and all Sexes and all conditions and made them an Ordinance in Israel and behold they are written in the Lamentations Tears are the best comment upon the Text and they cannot be brought into method for sorrow is an ill Courtier and method is but the Courtship of Learning The eye that waters is not so quick-sighted as to spie out elegancies And where the Heart is full the Hand cannot hold till the eye hath done watering But saith Judah as he goes along mourning for he mourns till this day saith the Text and wee may trace him by his teares when I look upon the Parallel of the place Zach. 12. 11. I am directed to mourn with one eye for my King with the other for my Saviour and indeed he saith true for in this dismall Tragedie of Josiah there was very much of Christ both for the Innocencie of the sufferer and for the manner of his suffering The Archers that shot Josiah knew him not to bee King of Judah And the Jewes that crucified Christ knew him not to be their King denying Pilats question in stead of answering it John 19. 15. Shall I crucifie your King for they said We have no King but Caesar Professing that if hee were their King in their own knowledge they would never crucifie Him O Generation of Christians worse then Jewes Josiah kept a most solemn Passeover and after it was made the Paschal Lamb So Christ But with this Difference Christ for expiation and Diminution Josiah for denuntiation and increase of Vengeance Bothinnocencies suffer upon Golgotha in Christ to quicken the skulls in Josiah to increase them God permitted Christ to be slain that he might reconcile Israel But Josiah that he might reject remove it out of his sight 2 Kings 23. 27. Josiah had not fought against Necho if God had not fought against Judah He stood like Aaron betwixt the Dead and the living and God put him aside being resolved to destroy all by Death whiles Josiah lived Judah could not die and now Josiah is Dead Judah may not hope and scarce desire to live This is the Reason of the sad Dity in the mouths of all the singing men and the singing women who seem to groan and sigh out rather than sing this heavy Lamentation Ah thou bloudie Egyptian Tyrant Hadst thou brought all the plagues of Egypt with thee and left those Archers behind that shot Josiah well thou mightest have grinded Judah and Jerusalem into Powder but thou couldest never have dissolved it into Tears And now O yee singing men and yee singing women forget all the songs of Sion as if yee were already in Babylon for it will not be long before you will be carried away captive thither Let all your mirth be turned into mourning your Josiah is fallen and your Hopes and Hearts are fallen with him your voyces must fall too Yet a deeper note of sorrow your singing must be turned into groaning that your waylings may be as sad as are your spirits sigh out your last groanings and when you have thus quite mourned away your voyces then mourn out your eyes Let not the Crocodiles of Egypt outvie the men of Judah They weep over their slain traveller before they devoure him having mercy in their eyes to check the want of it in their jawes why should we that have or ought to have so much mercy in our Hearts have none at all in our eyes If this Josiah and his goodnesses 2 Chron. 35. 26. A magazine of all that 's good in all other good men layed up in one Josiah move you not yet the other Josiah in Zacharie must needs move you If not his kindnesses yet your own unkindnesses must needs excite you And were your hearts as Rocks yet struck with Moses his Rod the terrours of Gods wrath against sinners which your Josiah did undergoe in your stead there must needs issue forth Rivers of waters If you
this dreadfull truth That the untimely death of their good King Josiah was not a Judgement upon the King but upon the People not upon him but upon Judah and Jerusalem and that 's the second cause of their great lamentation their dreadfull apprehension for what was like to befall them Judah and Jerusalem mourned for themselves in mourning for Josiah And the Prophet Jeremie shews them as much who though he writ his Lamentations upon this sad occasion the Death of Josiah as Jarchi expounds these words of my Text Behold they are written in the Lamentations 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith he that is In the Book of Lamentations yet he begins his complaint with the miserable estate not of Josiah but of Jerusalem How doth the Citie fit solitarie that was full of people None of all the Prophets seem so framed for and composed to Lamentations as Jeremiah he had a Heart to conceive it a Hand to endite it and a Tongue to expresse it Surely because he writ much about the time of Josiahs death which was the Inlet of all Judahs miserie For immediatly after that Judah was captivated under sin and that brought in the captivity under Babylon whiles Josiah lived he made Judah and Ierusalem serve God so devoutly that Non fuit simile huic in Israel was the Eulogie of their Passeover 2 Chron. 35. 18. And no sooner is he dead bus 'tis said of them They walked after the imagination of their own heart a most secret but a most sottish kind of Idolatry And after Baalim which their fathers taught them Jer. 9. 14. for in all probability this Chapter was not penned till after Iosiahs death This is the reason Ieremiah Prophesies so mournfully a fit Prophet for those calamitous times both for the Disposition in himself and for his Invitation of others to sorrow and contrition insomuch that a great part of his Prophesie is but a meer Lamentation especially the former part of it which was neerest the time of Iosiah for after the 21. chapter all his Prophesie is in the dayes of Iehoiakim and Zedechiah wherein he somewhat exceeds the sorrow of his own spirit writing not onely more dolefully then any other Prophet but also more dolefully then all the other parts of his own Prophecie I will give you but one instance for all and that is cap. 4. v. 19. My bowells my bowells I am pained at the very heart 'T is in the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I am pained as a woman in travaile at the walls or bulwarks of my heart that which most struggles to keep life hath the stroke of death upon it The sorrows of a woman in her travail are almost insupportable But a wounded spirit who can beare Prov. 18. 14. The pain of the heart is for greater then the pain of the bowells but lest wee should think he was not in the greatest extremitie of pain he joyns them both together saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I am so pained at the heart as if I were in child-birth such was his griefe for Iosiah's death a pain that both rends the bowells and breaks the heart and batters down the very walls and bulwarks of life And what 's the reason of all this great pain He tells us in the next verse Destruction upon destruction is cryed for the whole land is spoyled which could not be while Iosiah lived and therefore in these and such like sad expressions he did Prophetically foretell if not Historically bemoan Iosiah's death or rather indeed bemoan Ierusalem not but that his affection was most dutifull to Iosiah but because his apprehension was more dreadfull for Jerusalem For he saw that Iosiah was taken to the Reward of mercy for his great zeale to God and Religion but Jerusalem was left exposed to Judgement for her multiplied Abominations and Impieties And to the most heavy judgements of this world Fire and Sword and Bondage and to the most heavie bondage that could be to them a Bondage under the Egyptians A Bondage which their Fathers before had groaned so long under and which they could not at that time but tremble to think upon for Josiahs Passeovers according to the Law Exod. 12. 26 27. could not but fill their eares with the narration and their hearts with the horrour of it It was the Bondage of Egypt which those children could not but expect mercilesse whose Fathers had been formerly the spoylers and destroyers of the Egyptians Let us a little view this new Bondage that it may appeare their feares were not greater then their dangers though they were greater then their hopes for now Egypt had learned to act beyond it selfe in the practise of cruelty Before it was contented to take the tribute of their hands in work or of their backs for not working by the Brick-task-masters But now besides these it hath found out money task-masters to demand Tribute of their purses The former Tyrants had made them slaves but this Necho makes them pay for their slavery nay he made not onely their Purses Tributary but also their Patience whiles they were forced to see Jehoaaz whom they had declared King in his Fathers stead deposed by this Tyrant and themselves punished for their Alleageance towards Josiah their beloved Josiah and his seed in an hundred talents of Silver and one talent of Gold 2 Chro. 36. 3. For it is more then probable that Necho condemned the Land in that mulct or punishment for presuming to be true and faithfull to the Succession of the Crown without his leave And yet there is a worse Bondage then this the bondage of their Religion begun by the Egyptians and compleated after by the Babylonians This bondage of their Religion was now begun by the Egyptians for Necho made Eliakim change his name to Jehoiakim 2 Chron. 36. 4. before he would admit him to bee King as if he should renounce or forget his Circumcision wherein his name was first given him or lose his Kingdoms And this same Bondage was compleated by the Babylonians who carried away all the Treasures of the house of the Lord and cut in pieces all the Vessels of gold which Solomon King of Israel had made in the Temple of the Lord Thus were they forced to see the abomination of Desolation standing in the Holy place which carried the Desolation further then the Temple even to their souls that saw it whiles they were compelled to look on prophannesse in stead of Religion and see their Temple and worship both made havock of by uncircumcised Babylonians they not in the least degree able to help either themselves or their Temple All the Book of God sets not down so sad an History of a King destroyed for his People as this of Josiah And therefore no wonder if we find not any where else so sad a lamentation they had kept a solemn Passeover before but now they were forced to keep a dismall Passeover when their innocent Josiah was made the Paschal Lamb